The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1887-02-17

The President, in his veto, says
that the almost constant pension
legis station since the close of the war
to date has placed upon the pension
roll 365, ,763 pensioners of all classes,
for whom $75,OOO,0OO have been
appropriated for the current year,
and for whom ssOs, ,624 .s11 have
been expended from 1861 TO 1886.
1t is now proposed to award service
pensions to soldiers CT all wars al
$12 per month. 1t exacts only SER
vice of three months, without re-
quirlng engagement in battle or
subsection to any of the actual daH>
gers of war. The pension is allow
ed 10 persons who have suffered no
injury, loss or damage of any kind
due t. military service, and includ-
es those who never reached the
front at ali. The sec tacn of the bill
allowing this pen sion is in language
so uncertain as TO be subject to
UNJUST AND MIscHEvIoUs AfPLICA-
TONS.
Tho perzon seeking the pension
must be suffering mental or physic-
al debility, such as ncapacitates
them from the performance of Ia
bor in such a degree as to unable
them to earn support, and must
be dependent on daily labor for sup
port
Passing on to a consideration of
their conditions, the President adds:
at will be borne in mind that
there is no limitation or definition
of the incapacitatiug injury allment
itself. 1t need only be such a de-
gree of disability, from any cause,
as renders the claimant unable to
earn a support by labor. 1t seems
to me that the support hero men
toned ss one which cannot be earn
ed is a complete and entire supp ort
with no dlminution on account Of
the least impairment of physical or
mental conditions. If it b ad been
intended to embrace only those who
by disease or injury were totally un
able to labor, 4; wo u.d have been
very easy to express that idea, in
stead of recognizing as It doas de-
gree OF such inability" And then
he asks: "What is support ? Who
is to determine whether a man
earis 1t or has it or has it n OF? Is
the Government to enter the homes
of claimants for pensions, and, af.
ter examination of their surround
ings and circumstances, settle those
questions Shall the Government
say to ole man that his manner of
subsistence by his earnings is q sup
port, and to another that the
things his earnings furnish are not
support! And any attempt, how
ever honest, to administer this law
in such u manner would necessari-
ly produce more unfairness and un-
just discrimination, and give more
scope for partisan Partially, and
would result in more perversion of
the Governments benevolent inten-
tions than the execu ton of any
statue ought to permit. If, IN the
effort to carry cut the proposed law,
the degree of disability as relating
to earnings be considered for the
purpose Of showing if in any way
1t curtails the support which the
applicant if entirely soun1 would
earn, and to which he is entitled,
we enter the broad field long occu
pied by the Pension Bureau, and
we recognize the only difference be-
tween the proposed legislation and
the previous laws passed for The
beneft of the surviving soldiers of
the civil war the incurrence IN one
of disabilities in militia ry service
and the other disabilities existing,
but i'm no way connected with or re-
SuIting from such service. 1t must
be borne in mini that in no case is
there any grading OF tins proposed
pension. Under the operation Of
the rulc first suggested, If there is
a lack in any degree, great or small
OF the ability to earn such support
as the Government determines the
claimant shonld have, and by the
application of the rule secondly sug
gested, if there is a reduction in any
degree of the support which he
might earn. if sound, he is entitled
TO pension of $12.
In the latter case, and under the
proposed bill, permitting persons
now receiving pensions to he admit
ted to the benefit CT the act, l do
not see how those now on the pen
ST on roll for disabilities incurred in
the service, and which diminish
their earning capacity, can be de-
MED the pension provided iii this
bill.
ANOTHER CONDITION
Required of claimants under this
at. or that they shall be depend